Dorothy Lemmey stands near the "Silent Witness" display in front of the East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church in Kirtland. The display includes 21 figures, each representing a Lake County woman who was killed in domestic violence.

The blood-red silhouettes of 21 faceless women stand in stark contrast to the lush green of the grassy knoll in front of a Kirtland church.
The life-size structures have stood along the lawn of East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church, on Route 306 south of Route 6, for nearly two decades.
They were birthed from the Silent Witness National Initiative begun in Minnesota in 1990 by a group of women upset about the growing number of people being murdered by their partners.
The effort came to East Shore — previously housed at Graystone mansion in Mentor — in 1995 after the brutal murder of 37-year-old Eastlake resident Susan Gallese by her husband, who then shot himself.
“East Shore Unitarian Universalist Church could no longer stay silent about this epidemic,” said Dorothy Lemmey, the member who started the local project with 10 figures, in cooperation with Lake County shelter Forbes House. “Since October 1, 1995, women killed by their intimate partner in Lake County have not been forgotten.”
October is recognized nationally as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The display will remain up until 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Each polyurethane-coated, wooden figure is handmade by church members. Each bears an inscription briefly describing the circumstances of their death. All information is from news accounts.
“I’ve only had one family come to the church and say, ‘My mother was not a victim of domestic violence, my father only killed her,’ ” Lemmey said. “We took it down.”
She is well-versed in the matter, having made the crime the focus of a doctorate dissertation while studying to become a registered nurse.
“My sister was in an abusive relationship for 18 years,” she said, adding that she was able to get out and is remarried to a “nicer guy.”
“When I first started working on domestic violence in 1982, because of my sister, there was no assessment for it” at the hospital, said the Chardon resident.
“Now every single woman who comes to the ER or OB (unit), which is where I work, it’s on all assessment forms.”
The Rev. Judy Bagley-Bonner, the church’s interim minister, said the display is an important work.
“I am really impressed with the East Shore Congregation for raising its collective voice to speak out on behalf of these Silent Witnesses,” she said.